Thursday, 31 January 2013

I've got to get caught up my trades before the 2013 Topps S1 box arrives. I'm almost hoping it doesn't show up tomorrow so I have the weekend to post about these.

Firstly, the smaller of the two packages. I sent Jeff some cards needed to fill up the 89-90 Topps hockey set, missing out only on the Trevor Linden rookie card. I also threw in a team bag or so worth of Blackhawks, and a Doug Wilson relic. The only thing I knew I would get in return was this card:

A pretty nice trade of relics. I get one from one of my favourite teams, and vice versa. Sweet. But there was more. This was certainly the most interesting of the bunch:

Much like the Tekulve I picked up for 20 cents, I have no idea if it is real, but who would really want to forge a Rick Aguilera autograph? Edit: This might have been from a trade from Carl Crawford cards. Too many great envelopes, too poor a memory on my part.

A card that would probably have made its way to my top 10 wanted very soon was also there:

A sweet insert of the reigning Norris trophy winner.

The rest of the bubble envelope featured cards for my various binders:

The 2/14 binder:

I must be the only person on the planet who actively wants to get cards of Viktor Kozlov. Or Ilya Zubov. Staying with hockey, 3 new cards made their way into my Alfredsson binder.

I was really glad to get the UD base card, since I forgot to get a second one for that collection at a recent show. A nice variety in the uniforms as well.

More Sens! Again, I forgot to get a second Craig Anderson UD for the mask binder, so this package took care of that. Staying up north, how about some colourful Blue Jays?

I've never pulled a Walmart parallel anything from a pack purchased at one here, so those are nice. Maybe I'll have better luck with red parallels when the Targets open up.

Wednesday, 30 January 2013

Lots more goodies have been rolling into the HQ over the past few days. And the box of 2013 I ordered after blowing some of my Christmas funds hasn't even shown up yet. I'll start with a pair of hockey cards I grabbed off ebay. A pair of UD Canvas cards from this year.

Firstly, yet another card featuring my current favourite mask (at least until one shows up with Mike's teammate sporting his CM Punk mask). "How does a team that is generally as unpopular as the Coyotes have my two favourite masks?", I asked rhetorically.

The second canvas card adds yet another addition to my Alfredsson binder. It's nice to buy the base, and then simply buy the inserts and hits that interest you.

And now, let's see some of the highlights of the Dimwit break. I grabbed the Mets, and got randomed the Reds. What did that bring?

Some Canadians!

Seavers!

Textured Mets!

And even more David Wright!

And a Japanese slugger came my way through the ol' randomizer.

Great stuff. I missed the Feb break, but hope to be on time to sign up in March.

Tuesday, 29 January 2013

At least I got these done before the official release of the 2013 flagship. That counts for something, right?

The Irwin insert is definitely an interesting pull. While I'm guessing some balked at it, it is nice to see the women get some cardboard representation. I loved Conklin's octopus mask from his days in Detroit, and any card featuring any of the Sutters is always welcome.

Another card of Hedberg and his array of moose highlight this pack. Earl's playing in Switzerland now, so that isn't exactly a great rookie to have.

And the mask binder gets two more pockets filled with Henrik and yet another Lehtonen card.

And another two mask binder residents two wrap 3 blasters worth of fun from a store. I just wish I could have walked away with more of an armload of them. Some nice trade material. Some nice stuff for the binders. That's all you can really ask for with random repacks, and I got that for what worked out to less than a dollar a pack once all was said and done.

Monday, 28 January 2013

Before I start with three more members of the mask binder, I've added a new team to my hockey card cleanup giveaway. Even if it's mainly overproduction era cards, I'm sure a box filled with Mario Lemieux cards won't last long. I've added the Penguins to the Whalers/Canes and the Islanders. I'm certain this one won't last long. The box is about the same size as the Islanders or Blues box. Give a comment over there if you want them, with no need to send anything at all in return.

Edit: Barely an hour for the Pens, as expected.

OK. Off to the masks of the week.

I'm finding lots of neat mid 90s cards for the mask binder as I go through boxes looking and sorting by teams for the giveaway. This one is just perfect. Firstly, you get a nice shot of an Abominable snowman mask from Garth Snow, which is kinda surprising not to see on a mask that isn't an Avs one. But, it fits his last name. As does the veritable blizzard of snow that covers pretty much the entire bottom half of the card. Everything is in perfect synchronization on this card.

Staying with the Flyers:

Here's one I pulled from a 3 for $1.00 bin at a show just over a week ago. A nice textured card. Something different.

Even a card from 1980 can qualify for the binder if has a great photo on the front of it. A star spangled mask is great for a member of the Capitals. A shame that the OPC "Now with Oilers" appears on the bottom of it. A beauty from a dime box.

Sunday, 27 January 2013

Just a reminder that if you're a Whalers/Canes or an Islanders fan, you can pick up a box of cards here, with no trade expected in return. Other teams will go up as the months progress. The only teams I can say with certainty that won't appear will be the Original Six teams, as I did a dump of those recently.

Business done, let's get on with 4 of the 8 remaining packs.

This one loses points for coming out of the package with dinged corners. But it gets redeemed with a great Huet card for the mask binder, and an Alfredsson card for my PC of his.

3 cards for the mask binder. 2 for a Michigan care package. And Jason Pominville. Finding homes for 5 of the 6 cards is pretty good.

2 more mask cards. Toskala wasn't much to write home about in Toronto, but at least his mask was great. Nabokov is a good card for the mask binder as well. It's a subset card that salutes late round draft picks. I didn't pay much attention to this subset until I saw this card, but it did inspire me to order the Alfredsson card from that subset as part of a COMC order.

Nothing for my PC here (3 Ilya cards and not one with a decent mask shot) but shiny cards are always fun pulls.

Friday, 25 January 2013

The worst part about the checklists for all of this years' Topps releases was the complete lack of any Omar Vizquel card. Not a single one in the regular set. Not even anything in the update set for a final season of a possible Hall of Famer.

The only card out there for Omar was from the Blue Jays was from the annual Jr. Jays Fire Safety set. I'd looked for it on ebay, but really didn't want to drop the shipping cost.

However, a set with free shipping on Listia? Yes!

510 credits later, the set was mine, and more importantly, this card was mine:

A great wrong has been righted in my Jays binder.

Plus, the only card of Jeff Mathis in a Blue Jays uniform is also mine.

But, I picked up two sets for the same credit cost on listia. I've got the inkling to give that one over the blog at some point in time. Maybe just a random.org draw. Maybe a guess how many X are scored in a particular game/series contest.

Either way, I'll share my good fortune with someone else over the next couple months.

Thursday, 24 January 2013

Actually, a trip past the store revealed that it was not closing, but already closed. It will be a Target soon enough. Yet another card aisle in town to tempt me.

That Salming card is amazing. The classic Team Sweden jersey, combined with a helmet that looks a spray painted leftover from the Hogan Heroes set. That's a certain keeper. Penner's Portland Pirates (alliteration!) jersey will likely end up in the binder as well.

Another one where half the cards are certain keepers. 2 for the goalie mask binder, and yet another Milan Hejduk for the 2/14 binder. Nice.

An expansion hot pack! The Lehtonen will make it into the mask binder. Not too much else here, though.

This, however was almost a perfect pack. The only downside is that I only got 4 cards as opposed to the advertised 5. The two parallels will go into binders. The Huet will go into the mask binder, and the Prospal was actually sent out early this morning to a Lightning collector.

Wednesday, 23 January 2013

And with the first pack of 6 cards, I already equaled the # of keeper cards from my previous post. Two cards for the goalie mask binder are the highlight. I also love the legends cards that have been lurking in the high numbers of the OPC sets for the past many years. A good start.

I'll probably put the Stamkos card in my misc. binder, since the photo isn't your typical front shot that you see on the Artifacts base cards. Other than that, this is zistle stuff.

A great picture of the front of JS Giguere's half-and-half Ducks mask. The small picture on the back is even better. That one was a sure keeper. Ditto for the one where Steve Downie looks like he's getting a knee to the groin. Jed Ortmeyer is in a care package off to a Michigan alum collector. Another pack with the same # of notable cards than all 4 packs in the previous post.

And the final one of the post again has 3 notable cards. The Madden is joining the Jed Ortmeyer in the care package. Clemmensen is off to the mask binder, and Potvin will go in the misc binder. Definitely a hot pack for the NY/NJ area though.

No complaints about this foursome of packs. With a trio of personal keepers, the first OPC pack wins this round.

Probably the dullest 4 pack of the lot. Only a small percentage of these cards made their way into my personal binders as opposed to my zistle account.

Some nice star power in this one with the Malkin insert, and some decent base cards. Still, this was the dud pack of the bunch. No keepers among them, although the way the team colours backgrounds sometimes match up perfectly with the boards is interesting. Sometimes. I'm reaching here.

I've get yet another DiPietro for my mask binder in this one. Whenever I find a Matthew Lombardi card, I can't help thinking about the MST3K episode "The She Creature". Who's that fat little funny little doll? It's Tickle-Me Carlo Lombardi? Who's little diaper needs a good little change? It's Tickle-Me Carlo Lombardi! Ole-Kristian Tollefsen with his foot up at the boards isn't nearly as amusing as the similar Adam Foote card.

The Luongo card is only the second one to make its way to the mask binder from this grouping. Both of the horizontal cards would have worked just fine vertically, and the red border on the bottom of the photo looks awful. As for the Starquest cards, some of the green on the Teemu card came off on the bottom of the Sundstrom.

Tuesday, 22 January 2013

At the show this weekend, I grabbed a number of those Toronto Blue Jays fire safety/Oh Henry! sets. One of which was the 25th anniversary edition. Along with such memorable Jays as Brian Simmons(*), was this incredibly unflattering manager card of Buck Martinez"

If this wasn't a team set, I'd be a lot easier to convince that this photo was a rib on the part of the company.

(*) The best part of these sets is that you can say "He played in Toronto?".

Monday, 21 January 2013

Sure, the whale on the mask looks more sleepy than threatening. But, I love how the body of the whale curves around the side of the mask to work with the face of it. The puck in its mouth is a bonus. There are several of these type of base cards in this base set.

The ice brick wall is a perfect motif for a goaltender. It's a shame he never made a stop in Pittsburgh. An igloo theme would have worked even better then.

And since I've had a two defunct teams with the first two, I'll wrap it up with a third.

I have no idea why a player in Greenville, SC has cacti on his mask. I just wanted post a card for the Greenville Grrrowl.

Sunday, 20 January 2013

The bad news is that the card show today had many hockey dime bins but none of the baseball variety. Still, that meant significant dents in the hockey portion of my want lists. As well as my 2012 WWE Heritage set.

The good news was that there were many X for $1 baseball bins, and I did grab some interesting 80s cards out of there. Most interestingly, I came across as 5 for $1.00 bin that had a whopping 8 autographed Gary Redus cards. I knew that among the bloggers that someone would give that grouping of cards a far better home than a dealer's bin in Ontario. So, I picked them up and will send them off on Monday.

But, two thin dimes also picked up my favourite single card of the day.

It might not have the "Congratulations!" on the back, but it is still a great card for me!

PS: In case you think I'm funning about the 8 Redus cards:

For completion's sake, here's the final card from the 5 for a dollar bin:

I'll see if I can close off this run of blasters before the stores themselves close. 5 more posts to go!

Usually for me, finding a Sens card would be the highlight of any pack (even if it is Heatley). For me, the hilariously stellar penmanship of Slava Kozlov takes the cake. The back also can win itself a redundancy award prize for stating that he scored a hat trick "in Atlanta's 5-4 home victory over the Senators in an 11/8/06 home battle." So where did that game take place again? That card is a keeper, for all the wrong reasons.

Masterpieces are always welcome, even though I did grab a base set off ebay a few weeks back. If I didn't, I would still be upset that the only card of Dale I had from the set choose to honour Dale Hawerchuk as a St. Louis Blue. But, since I now have the card in the set where he's a Jet, all is forgiven. Nice Bourque as well, although its the lesser of the 3 Ray cards in the set. The others being the Cup lift and the Esposito ceremony.

Another Axelsson parallel. Any major PJ fanboys out there? But, getting a new Cam Ward for the mask binder and a new Lanny for my slowly developing collection of his cards makes up for that.

I didn't have a card of that side of the Kari Lehtonen Kill Bill mask in my binder. A binder addition is always a good thing. At least the Young Gun card is of someone who's still in the NHL. I think. I know he's one of the cards I still need to finish off this year's Score set.

The Adam Foote card, however, is a thing of brilliance. He's Adam Foote, and he's got his foot up on the board, and the foot is the most prominent thing on the card, right underneath the text reading "Foote". It is brilliance, I tellsya! Brilliance!